


Colors

by lucifersfavoritechild



Series: "It's the Perfect Story" Asides/Aus/One-Shots [7]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Fanfiction of Fanfiction, It's the Perfect Story, Soulmate AU, TheBrightestNight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-11-28 17:49:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11423040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucifersfavoritechild/pseuds/lucifersfavoritechild
Summary: A soulmate AU between Luke Castellan and OFC Tori Williams





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheBrightestNight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBrightestNight/gifts).



> Notes: I made some changes to Plato’s theory on soulmates, namely adding in the things about color and Iris. Some of these scenes were borrowed from It’s the Perfect Story with minor and/or major changes. Part of one scene is lifted from my previous fanfic, Scars. The song from the end is I Walk the Line (the version I had in mind was sung by Halsey).

Tori knows what soulmates are. She’s read about them in school, seen all the movies and heard all the songs, listened to her schoolmates gossip about them. She knows that the moment you touch your soulmate, the world changes from black and white to new, vibrant colors that she can’t even imagine. Out loud, she’s always brushed the idea off, but really, she’s in love with it. The thought that a person could change the entire way you see the world with just a brush of their hand is one that’s enraptured her since she was a child. She loves the movies because even though they’re cheesy and cliched, they’re also sweet and romantic and hopelessly optimistic. She’s read a thousand books on the subject, some cheesy romances, others heartbreaking tragedies that left her crying, and a few about the myths behind them. Her favorite is the Greek myth, though she’s not sure why. According to Plato, people used to be doubles, with two faces, and four arms and legs. Most importantly, they could see in color. Then Zeus, wanting to keep the humans from becoming too powerful, cut them in half. Apollo healed the creatures, and they ran around frantically looking for their other halves. At first, there was no way of knowing for sure who your soulmate was, but Iris took pity on the humans and made it so that when you touched your soulmate, you could see colors again. Once they found each other, the halflings tried desperately to join again — something they could only do temporarily by having sex. Tori always used to blush thinking about that part, wondering what it would be like to have sex with her soulmate.

Still, she’s not stupid. She knows that their are millions of people who never even meet their soulmate. Her mother, Diana, was one of them, and she was perfectly happy. And even meeting your soulmate isn’t a guarantee of anything. They might already be in love with someone else, the relationship might turn toxic, or they could die, leaving you in a world without colors again. And that one always happened.

So yes, Tori knows what soulmates are. And yes, she’s thought about meeting hers.

She didn’t think it would happen like this, though.

* * *

The first time she meets him, she doesn’t realize he’s her soulmate. They never touch, and she barely sees him, doesn’t hear what he’s saying. She’s lost in the daze she’s been in since her mother’s death, walking around like she’s in a trance. So when Luke introduces himself to her and Dan, she barely notices. She just makes her way to the space they’d cleared for her on the floor and goes to sleep. Her dreams are filled with screams, cries for help, and blood, blood,  _blood_ —

Tori wakes up crying, but it looks like everyone else is asleep. Shaking, she gets up and makes her way to the bathroom, finds the farthest shower stall, and falls to the ground sobbing.

She’s not sure how long it is until someone knocks on the bathroom door. “Can I come in?”

Tori’s crying too hard to answer, but they come in anyway. It’s the boy from earlier.  _Luke_ , she remembers. He opens the shower curtain and looks down at her with a worried expression. “Are you okay?”

Tori doesn’t say anything, trying to rein in her her tears. Luke rolls his eyes. “Stupid question. Of course you’re not okay, you’re crying on the bathroom floor.” He goes to his knees in front of her and reaches his hand out to her shoulder. Tori jerks away from him instinctively, pressing herself and her scars against the wall. Luke holds up his hand up in a placating gesture. “Okay, you don’t want to be touched. I understand. Can you tell me what’s wrong?”

For a long time, they sit there in silence. Then, when Luke looks ready to give up, Tori says in a small voice, “My mom’s dead.”

Luke doesn’t say anything. And really, what can he say? He can’t bring her mom back. And he has no idea how to comfort someone about something like that.

Tori expects him to leave, and closes her eyes to wait for him to go. Instead, he sits next to her, leaning his head against the wall. And she’s not sure why, but his presence is comforting. He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t make false reassurances or meaningless condolences. He’s just  _there_ , sitting with her in silent understanding, and it’s more than anything anyone else has done for her.

Luke gets up eventually. He reaches out a hand to Tori, but she doesn’t take it. She can’t stand to be touched right now, not after that _thing_  clawed her back, or the so-called doctors strapped her down. But she does whisper, “Thank you.”

Luke just nods in acknowledgement and walked with her back to the bedroom.

She doesn’t dream again that night.

* * *

Grey is...well, grey. The color between black and white, with a thousand different shades, tints, and tones. It’s everywhere, from the sky to the ground. It’s water and fire. It’s everything and anything, and Tori doesn’t know what the world would be without it.

* * *

At some point, Dan drags her out of bed to rejoin the outside world. They spend the first week trying to figure out their schedules and where they belong. Tori’s surprised to learn that she has a talent for archery, though she’s yet to make a perfect shot.

She’s starting to come out of her daze by their second week—which is good, since they apparently have a test to take. (“Who gives someone a test after a week?” Tori grumbled.)

Tori arms herself with the simple yew recurve bow that she’s been practicing with. Chiron explains the test to them, “Think of this as a placement test. I just want to see how far along you are and what you should or need to practice with. Though it  _is_ dangerous, no one has been more than majorly injured from it yet.”

Tori frowns. “What exactly is the definition of ‘majorly injured’?”

Chiron doesn’t seem to hear her. “Just in case any of you need help, there will be more skilled campers waiting.”

With that, he starts to send people into the woods, one at a time. Tori’s the third to go, moving quietly amongst the bushes and trees, flinching whenever she heard a noise.

She was doing well, at first. She kept her arrow notched at all times, thinking to herself,  _This is insane. Everyone at this camp is insane._ I’m _insane._ She kills the first two monsters she sees and moved on, but the last one makes her stop in her tracks. She looks to her left, but doesn’t move, doesn’t breathe. 

The hellhound growls at her. She can hear its breathing.  _Breathing. Breathing, if I can hear it breathe, then it’s big, and if it’s big then I can hit it._  She takes a deep, shaking breath.  _I can do this. I_ will _do this._ Tori raises her bow and arrow as she turns, taking a few steps back.

The _thing_ leaps out from the bushes where it had been hiding, its lips pulling back over its muzzle, revealing slimy, razor-sharp teeth. Tori’s heart stops.

She sees the fiery light in its eyes, and forces herself to look away, but it’s too late. She felt the world tilt slightly and her ears rung with far away screams. She raises her arms, and is about to let her arrow fly when she makes the mistake of looking into its eyes again. They’re glowing grey pits that immediately stop her in her tracks.

Tori panics. It all came flooding back to her, like a movie playing behind her eyes that she can’t escape, can’t  _stop_. The hellhound in front of her blurs, replaced by horrifying flashbacks. Screams fill her ears. Moving, pulsing black covered her vision before being spattered with black blood.

The screams get louder.

A woman's voice, shrill and terrified. A name mixed in with her cries of agony, her cries of help.

 _"Help! Apollo, please!_ Please! _"_

Suddenly her vision snaps back into place. She’s on the ground now, the hellhound hanging over her. She’d somehow managed to get her hands around the thing’s neck, keeping its snapping jaws from her throat.

It’s not as big as the other one.

The monster quickly reminds Tori that its paws are free. It swipes at her and she turns her head away. Pain blossoms in her neck, followed by warmth spilling down her neck and onto the forest floor. Her right hand moves to cover the wound on her neck. Her other hand, not strong enough to hold up the monster alone, buckles, allowing it to fall completely top of her, its paws landing hard on either side of her head. Its face gets right into hers, and she thinks she’s about to die, but it yelps suddenly before falling to the side and melting into the shadows.

Blood flows from her wounds, through her fingers, and the summer sky and trees above her spin. Light grey mixes with mid-grey and black.

 _An artery_ , she thinks absently. The hellhound's claw had nicked an artery in her neck. She was going to bleed out in seconds.

_I’m going to die._

And then she sees Luke. He kneels next to her, shouting something, putting his calloused hand over her bloody one.

And just like that, the world changes. Suddenly, the sky isn’t grey. It’s something completely different, and so are the trees and the grass and Luke—

 _Luke._ Luke is something else entirely. They stare at each other, silent. Tori focuses on his eyes. They’re beautiful and shining, wide with concern and shock and awe. But she only has a moment to think,  _What color is that?_ , before the world turns black.

* * *

White isn’t really a color. Similar to black, it’s the  _absence_ of color. It’s stark and plain and Tori’s eyes hurt if she looks at it too long. It’s the color of snow and milk and porcelain and she’s tired of it.

* * *

Centaurs, half-bloods, satyrs, nymphs, naiads, monsters, actual fucking  _gods_ —none of it seems as strange or as  _amazing_ to Tori as color.

When she wakes up, the first thing she hears is someone arguing. She frowns and opens her eyes, only to immediately close them. She lets them rest a moment before trying again, slowly now. Her eyes are bombarded with color, but she’s better prepared this time, and the room is done in soft, calming tones. She looks around, her eyes drawn to a window. She frowns slightly when she realizes it’s night. It’s one thing to know, objectively, that the sky is blue, but she wants to see it _without_ a horrible neck wound to distract her.

She’s so busy absorbing all the new colors that it takes her a moment to realize that the people from before are still arguing. Chiron is sitting in his wheelchair in between two teenage boys at the end of Tori’s bed (which she realizes is an infirmary bed), sighing tiredly. “Boys, please, I understand that you’re both upset, but you still have to follow the rules—”

“Chiron,  _please_ , I’m her soulmate, I should be allowed to stay with her—”

“Oh, shut up, pretty boy! I’m her brother, I’ve known her my whole life, and if anyone is going to stay with her, it’ll be me!”

They keep arguing Tori croaks out, “What’s—” before coughing. In an instant, there are two teenage-boys at her side. One is Dan, and the other is—

“Luke,” Tori manages before her throat is in too much pain to continue.

The boy smiles at her. “Hey.” He stops smiling and shoots the boy he was arguing with a dirty look when he scoffs. Tori sees him standing behind Luke, and realizes it’s Dan only after she takes in his new appearance. His skin is similar to hers — she’s heard it described as bronze — but his hair is dark brown, like their mother’s. She tries to say ‘Dan’, but her throat refuses to cooperate. She reaches her hand up to her neck, feeling the bandages there.

“Your throat was hurt pretty bad,” Luke explains, “Luckily, the Apollo campers were able to fix it, but you’re going to be recovering for a couple more days.” A wave of guilt passes over his face. “I’m so sorry, I should have gotten to you sooner—”

“Damn right you should have!” Dan says angrily. “Now would you get out? We don’t know you, and we don’t want you in here!”

“That’s enough, both of you,” Chiron says. “Now, one of you may stay,  _if Victoria wants you to_ , to make sure she’s alright and get help if she needs it. Tori, would you like one of them to stay with you?”

Tori thinks about it intently. She starts to remember what happened. It’s enough to make her shiver, and she can’t stand the thought of being alone. And as much as she loves her brother, he reminds her too much of their mom, which is the  _last_  thing she needs right now. On the other hand, Luke saved her  _and_  he’s her soulmate. And his presence the other night had been so comforting...

Tori just manages to say, “Luke,” before the muscles in her throat cramp, and she holds her hand up to rub them, whimpering. Luke starts to reach a hand out to her before quickly taking it back, remembering how she’d reacted to touch before.

Dan stares at his sister, hurt. “Tori, please...”

“I’m sorry, Dan,” Chiron says, making to leave, “Your sister has made her choice. Now go. It’s time to sleep. I’ll check on you in the morning, Victoria.”

Dan gave his sister one last, hurt look, before mumbling a goodbye and leaving. Just after he opens the door, he shoots Luke a dirty look, but the son of Hermes doesn’t even notice, too busy pulling a seat up to Tori’s side.

Once Dan leaves, Tori tugs on Luke’s shirt. He sits up attentively. “What do you need?” Tori pokes her blanket, then points at her eye. Luke nods in understanding. “It’s yellow, I think. Hang on.” Luke gets up and walks out of the room, returning a moment later with a small book in his hands. He stands by her side and shows it to her. “It’s  _The Color Thesaurus_.”

Tori knows the book. She can remember walking through a park and seeing couples hold it up to determine what color things were now. She used to feel a twinge of excitement seeing them, wondering if she would ever do that with  _her_  soulmate. Now she’s laying in a lumpy cot with an injured throat and a boy she barely knows looking at her like he has no idea what to think.

Luke hands the little book to her. She flips through it until she reaches the yellow section. There are 30 little colored squares spread out over three pages. She runs her fingers over the pages reverently, committing each of the new hues to memory. She tries to say something, but the words catch in her throat.

Tori compares the pages to her blanket. After a moment of looking through the little squares, she points one of them out to Luke.

Luke looks at the color and nods. “‘ _Daffodil’_ ,” he says, his voice curling around the word.  _He has a nice voice_ , Tori thinks,  _Not too high or low pitched, neither rough nor childish._ “Yeah, I think that’s it. Not as pale, though.”

Tori nods and looks up, staring at Luke intently. He frowns and shifts from foot to foot self-consciously. “What?”

Tori forces herself to speak. “Eyes. Your eyes.”

“Oh. They’re, uh, blue. Pale blue.”

Tori reaches up to him, brushing the skin beside his eye with her thumb. “I like them.”

Luke suddenly reaches his hand up, holding her fingers to his face. They stare at each other, brown eyes meeting blue. Then Luke says, “We should get some sleep.” Tori nods, yawning. What little activity she’d done had exhausted her. Luke settles down in the bed nearest hers with a quick, “Good night.” Tori nods and yawns again, snuggling into her pillow.

Tori spends three days in the infirmary. Luke stays with her constantly, bringing his meals to the infirmary to eat and clearing a space to practice his sword stances. Tori watches him, blushing when he catches her staring. She’d never thought of herself as vain, but she admits (mentally) that she likes the fact that her soulmate is good-looking. She likes his blond hair (paler than her own with hints of brown, but still definitely the color identified in  _The Color Thesaurus_ ), his tanned skin (and the pronounced muscles  _under_  that skin), and  _especially_  his blue eyes. She just doesn’t know if she likes  _him_. Or rather, if she’s  _ready_  to like him.

Still, for all that barely leaves her side, she can tell he isn’t sure what to think either. Sometimes she sees him looking at her when he thinks she’s looking away, a questioning, almost sad look in his eyes. She stares at his back as he sharpens his sword.  _What? Am I not what you expected? … Not what you wanted?_

On the fourth day, one of the Apollo campers  _finally_ removes her bandages. Luke’s there, perfectly playing the part of the concerned soulmate. Once they’re done, the older camper leaves to let them get ready to go back to the Hermes Cabin. Tori sits on the edge of the bed, playing with the hem of her shirt. It’s grey, like so many of her clothes are. She wonders if she’ll be able to go clothes shopping. She doesn’t think she can stand to only ever wear black and white when there are suddenly hundreds of new colors she can see.

Luke finishes making sure they have everything. “You ready to go?”

It takes Tori a moment to take her eyes off his back muscles. Once she does, she lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in. “Actually, I was wondering if we could talk for a minute.”

Luke looks back at her for a moment, then nods. “Sure, whatever you want.” He sits down next to her on the bed. Tori shifts uncomfortably when he presses up against her scarred shoulder.

“Luke, can we just...Can we just be friends, for now? I’m sorry, but it’s a lot to take in. I mean, I  _just_ found out I’m a demigod, and my mom...it’s just too much even without adding a soulmate to it, you know?”

She can’t tell if he looks disappointed or relieved. “Yeah, I understand. And I’d like to be your friend.”

Tori sighs in relief. “Thank you.”

Luke smiles and stands up, but Tori stops him by grabbing his hand. “Also...well, I know you’re a really good sword fighter, and I was wondering if, maybe, you could teach me?”

Luke’s eyebrows scrunch together in confusion. “I thought you were an archer?”

“I am. A beginner, at least. But I figure it can’t hurt to be able to do both, right? Sword-fighting and archery?”

Luke looks at her apprehensively, crossing his arms. “I feel like you’re not telling me something.”

Tori looks away from him, feeling her neck and face heat up. She stares at her hands, picking at her nails. “I just...I don’t want to be vulnerable.”

Luke’s eyes soften and he takes one of Tori’s hands in his. “Of course I’ll teach you.” His eyes light up as though he’s just remembered something. “As long as we’re talking, I, um, got you a present.” He takes a small box out one of his jacket pockets and hands it to her, scratching the back of his neck nervously. “You don’t have to keep it if you don’t want it, I just thought you might like it.”

Tori takes the small cream-colored box with its brown ribbon and opens it curiously. Her breath catches in her throat when she saw the bracelet. She picks it up carefully, like she’s afraid it might break, watching the sunlight shine off the glass. “It’s beautiful.” It was a simple charm bracelet with ten pieces of linked sea glass. Tori stares at it, sorting the little rainbow colors in her head.

Luke grins. “You like it?”

Tori smiles for what feels like the first time in years. “I  _love_  it!” She puts it on her left wrist, turning it around and watching in wonder at the way light reflects off it. She looks up at Luke with a cheesy grin, struck by a sudden desire to kiss him. Still, she knows it probably isn’t a good idea to kiss someone you’d only  _just_  agreed to be friends with. She hugs him instead, leaping up from the bed and throwing her arms around his neck. Luke stumbles back in surprise, then wraps his arms around Tori, settling his hands on her lower back. She relaxes once she realizes they’re not on her scars. When they pull away from each other, Tori thinks,  _Maybe having a soulmate won’t be so bad._

* * *

Silver is different from grey, gold isn’t yellow, and bronze isn’t  _quite_  the same as brown. There’s a certain sharpness to metals that’s different from anything else. Tori finds herself running her hand down the side of a sword or the point of an arrow, wondering at the differences.

* * *

Tori rubs her sore arm. Sword-training with Luke is exhausting, which was kind of embarrassing once she realized he was holding back on her. They trained together for an hour each day in the arena, spending the first 30 minutes practicing the techniques, and the rest of the time sparring. Suffice it to say, Tori didn’t think she would be winning any time soon.

Still, Luke said she was doing better, and that was enough to make her keep trying. There was something about Luke that she didn’t really understand, but whatever it was, it drew her to him. He was...intense.  _Especially_  when he trained. And the look he got in his eyes when he fought, like there was nothing in the world that mattered more than what was happening then and there...Tori found herself wondering if he ever got that look outside of training.

One day, a few weeks after they met, Tori goes to practice early. When she gets to the arena, Luke was there already, talking to a young girl. He smiles when he sees her. “Hey, Tori. Have you met Annabeth?”

The girl looks at Tori, not moving from Luke’s side. She has blond hair and grey eyes, and she’s absolutely  _tiny_. Tori wonders if she’s eating enough as Annabeth gives her a sour look. “Hi.”

Tori keeps her expression carefully neutral. “Nice to meet you.” She leans down so that they’re on eye-level and holds out her hand, which Annabeth reluctantly takes, staring at Tori’s wrist.

“Nice bracelet,” she mutters.

Tori frowns, looking at the bracelet. “Thanks.”

“I have to go,” the girl says suddenly, taking her hand back. “Bye, Luke.” Annabeth leaves before Luke can say anything.

Tori stares at the door. “What’s with her?”

“Uh, I’m not sure. She’s been kind of distant lately.” Luke tries to shrug it off, but Tori can tell it’s upsetting him more than he’s letting on.

“Who is she?”

Luke has a wary look on his face that Tori finds a little off-putting. “What do you mean?”

Tori shrugs, trying to stay casual. “Just wondering how you know each other.”

Luke sits down, his shoulders tense. “We met after I ran away from home. Her, me, and Thalia lived on the streets before coming to Camp Half-Blood.”

Tori had heard about Thalia and her sacrifice, but the rest is new. And the way Luke talks about her…

She sits down next to Luke, putting a hand lightly on his shoulder. “Why’d you run away?”

Luke pushes away from Tori and stands with his back to her. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Tori considers pushing for more information, but decides against it. Just because he’s her soulmate doesn’t mean he has to tell her  _everything_. And besides, there were things she hadn’t told him, private things that she didn’t feel comfortable sharing, and he’d respected that. The least she could do was return the favor. “Okay.” Still, she hoped they  _would_ tell each other about those things one day.  _Isn’t that what a soulmate’s supposed to be? Someone you love and trust more than anyone?_  “Want to get started?”

* * *

Yellow is the color of a sharp-smelling lemon and the shining sun. It’s Luke’s hair and sword, shining bright in the arena as he showed her how to handle a longsword. It’s soft and sweet and bright, and it reminds her of her mom.

* * *

_A huge black dog growled at Diana from where the door had been. It eyes were fiery pits, and it had teeth as large as knives._

_“Tori,” Diana said, trying to stay calm. “Go to your room and try to get out the window.”_

_But Tori couldn’t move. She was paralyzed with fear, pushed up against the wall as far as she could go. “Mom...”_

_“Tori,” Diana said, backing up, “Go_ now— _”_

 _The monster leapt, falling on Diana. She crashed to the floor with it on top of her. She held it off for a moment, screaming. “Help! Apollo, please!_ Please! _" And then there was nothing but red, red,_ red—

Tori jackknifes up in bed, breathing hard. Her hands scramble for purchase, clutching her blanket. Once she calms down, she realizes there’s someone sitting beside her, holding her arm. “Luke?”

Luke put a finger over his mouth. “Shh. It’s still night.”

Tori looks around the room. There’s only a sliver of moonlight from the window to help her see. Still, everyone else  _seems_ to be asleep.

Luke grabs her hand, drawing her eyes back to him. His hair is messy and his eyes look both tired and conerned at the same time. Tori feels her heart clench when she realizes she woke him up. “Are you alright?”

She’s shaking, but she nods anyway. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

Luke doesn’t look like he believes her, but he stands up to go back to his bed. Tori reaches out suddenly, grabbing his wrist. “No!” Luke stares at her with wide eyes. She asks, in a quieter voice, “Can you...can you stay with me? Please? I don’t think I can be alone right now.”

Luke looks at her cautiously, then nods. “Of course.”

Tori sighs in relief. “Thank you.” She moves over to make room for him. Luke slides into her sleeping bag. There’s barely enough space for them both, but Tori doesn’t mind. She rests her head on top of his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. “You’re warm,” she murmurs. Luke chuckles and kisses the top of her head, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. “Good night, Tori.” Tori whispers something back, but she’s so tired she’s not sure what. It doesn’t matter, because this is the first time she’s felt at peace since she got here and she already knows she wouldn’t change it for the world.

* * *

Orange is the flame of a candle. It’s the skin of an orange and a drop of amber. It’s warm and rich and Tori thinks she would have liked it once.

* * *

Tori stares sourly at Luke’s back as she watches him pack. “I don’t like this.”

Luke sighs and straightens, turning to look at her. “Really Tori? I didn’t get that the  _first_   _fifty times you said it_.”

Tori scowls at him and kicks away from the wall. “I don’t get why I can’t come with you. I’m your friend, your  _soulmate_. This is something we should do together.”

“I know,  _I know_. But Hermes wants this to be a solo quest, and what the gods want, they get.” Luke scowls himself then, stuffing a shirt into his bag with more force than necessary. “Trust me, I’d rather go with you, but it’s not my choice.”

Tori pouts and kicks at the floor. She wouldn’t be so upset if  _someone_ was going with him, but this way he would be completely alone. What if he was captured, hurt, or knocked unconscious? What if a monster found him while he was sleeping because there was no one keeping watch? Who would help him? It was so easy to imagine Luke dying. He would put up a good fight, she knew, but what if it wasn’t enough? In her head, she could see blood spurting from a wound in his neck, his chest, his face…

There are tears in her eyes when she says, “Please, just let me talk to your dad. Maybe I can convince him—”

Luke slams the sword he’s holding onto a table, the sound echoing through the room. “ _No_.”

Tori stares at him, backing up a little at the angry look in his eyes. Luke sighs and runs his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry,” he says quietly, “I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that. But there’s no point in talking about it anymore, Tori. Hermes has already decided, and I have to go along with it.”

Tori lets out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding in. She walks over to him, resting her head against his chest and playing with his hands. “I know. I just wish there were some way to know you’d be safe.”

“I will be,” he promises.

It didn’t make her feel better, but she decides not to push the issue. Instead, she leans back so that Luke lets her go. Shyly, she admits, “I got you something.” She grabs a small black box from her stuff and hands it to Luke. He takes the box curiously and opens it. Inside a necklace lays against the soft cotton Tori had put inside. Luke picks it up, watching it spin. It was a simple leather chord with a celestial bronze arrowhead hanging from it.

Tori fidgets while Luke looks at the gift. “It’s nothing special really. It’s just...well it’s the from the first arrow I ever made a perfect shot with, so I figure it’s lucky. I thought I might feel better if you had it.” Tori remembers that day. She’d been so excited she’d run straight to Luke to tell him. He was so proud, smiling at her with his glittering blue eyes.

Luke’s eyes were glittering now too. He smiles and put the necklace on, letting it rest over his heart. “I love it, Tori.”

Tori smiles and hugs him, throwing her arms around his neck. Luke wraps his arms around her back, holding her to him. After a moment, Tori pulls her head back a little to look at him. His half-lidded eyes are dark, and she realizes he’s looking at her mouth. She lets her eyes drift to his mouth and leans up to meet him. Their lips brush, but before they can kiss, someone barges into the room.

“Luke, are you ready—Oh.” Annabeth was standing in the doorway of the Hermes Cabin in a black shirt, her face closed-off. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

Luke suddenly pulls away from Tori, stepping around to talk to Annabeth. Tori tries not to feel upset. She knows Annabeth is like a sister to him, and that it must hurt the girl to see her crush with his soulmate, but she can’t help but feel she’s just been brushed aside.

Annabeth tells Luke, “Chiron wants to know if you’re ready to leave.”

“Yeah,” Luke answers, nodding distractedly, “Just give me a minute and I’ll be out.”

Annabeth nods and leaves. Luke sighs and draws his hands down hus face before turning back to Tori, who’s looking at him coldly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know she was going to interrupt.”

“It’s fine,” Tori says in a clipped tone. She tries to brush past him, but he grabs her wrist lightly, running his thumb over a blue piece of sea glass.

For a moment, neither of them speak, instead staring at the bracelet. Then Luke says, “I’ll talk to you when I get back, okay?” Tori nods dully, allowing a slight smile to cross her face when he kisses her forehead. Luke backs away and grabs his bag, heading to the door. He stops just after opening it. “What? You’re not coming to see me off?”

Tori smiles and walks outside with him, trying to quell her feeling of dread.  _He’ll be fine_.

* * *

Black is...familiar. It’s what she fell into after the hellhound attacked her. It’s the color of the night sky when there’s a new moon. It’s one of three colors she could see before meeting Luke. Familiar isn’t always good.

* * *

Tori’s reading in the Hermes Cabin when when someone she doesn’t know slams open the door and shouts, “LUKE’S BACK!” before running back out. Suddenly everyone in the cabin is moving. Tori’s the first up. She drops her book without thinking, and once she’s processed the information, she gets up and runs to the door. She stops just short of leaving and runs back to her bunk. She picks out a pale blue shirt that matches Luke’s eyes and black jeans from her clothes and goes to the bathroom. As she changes, she thinks, _I thought he’d Iris Message me when he came back._  She pushes the thought out of her mind. He probably just didn’t want to waste any time getting back.

She quickly checks her hair in a mirror, pulls on some shoes, makes sure she has her bracelet, and runs out of the cabin to join everyone else.

Luke’s standing beside Thalia’s tree when she sees him, his face turned away from her. She smiles and jogs faster, eager to see him and ask him how it went. Then he turns, and she stops dead in her tracks.

For a moment, she wonders if she’s hallucinating. She’d know if something happened to Luke, right? He would have Iris Messaged her, or Chiron, or done  _something_ , right? But no. There’s a very real, very  _painful-looking_ scar on Luke’s face that she had no idea existed before this moment. From the stunned, pitying looks on everyone else’s faces, she guesses they didn’t either.

There’s a crowd surrounding him already—the price she pays for stopping to change—and she has to push through it to get to him. “Luke!” she says, smiling. Scarred or not, she’s glad to see him. She reaches out to grab his hand, but he moves away. Tori’s eyebrow scrunch together in confusion. “Luke?”

Luke forces a smile on his face. “Hey, Tori.” And that’s the last thing he says to her before Chiron arrives.

 _Alright_ , Tori thinks,  _Maybe he just needs some time alone. I’ll talk to him later._

But later never came. Luke wore a laurel wreath to a feast in his honor, but he sat in between two of his siblings rather than with her like he normally did. She tried to talk to him after dinner, but he was already leading a procession to the bonfire. Tori had designed his shroud since she was useless with a needle. It was made of rich brown silk and embroidered with a pattern of gold daggers that Tori thought he might like. Still, she was glad to burn it.

She follows him back to the cabin after the bonfire. “Luke! Luke, get back here!”

Luke stops so suddenly, Tori almost walks right into him. “What?” he snaps.

Tori stares at him, shifting awkwardly. “You haven’t talked to me all day. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Is that it?” He turns and leaves without waiting for an answer. Tori stands still, staring at him in the dark, with the moon’s silver light shining off her eyes.

* * *

In ancient Rome, purple was the color of nobility. Purple dye could only be made from rare snails, so it was incredibly expensive. For centuries, it was associated with aristocracy. And (incidentally, of course) insanity. Tori thinks purple is a good color for how she feels when Luke avoids her.

* * *

Luke and Tori barely speak for several weeks. They sit by each other at meals, but Luke never says anything to her or shows up to their sword practices. After a while, Tori stops going.

Tori’s known him for three years now, but he’s never acted like this before. His silence was about the quest and his scar, that much was obvious. She learns from one of the Apollo campers that Luke had refused to take any ambrosia or nectar for his wound, or else the scar wouldn’t be so bad. The older girl had shaken her head when she talked about it, noting what a shame it was that Luke’s good looks had been marred. Tori’d had to keep herself from punching the other camper in her soulmate’s defense. Luke wasn’t an idiot; if he let the scar get as bad as it was, then there was a reason for it. And personally, she thinks that if anything, Luke looks  _more_ handsome with the scar, like an ancient Greek hero who’d gotten it battling a monster (which, come to think of it, isn’t that far off the mark). But she knows it’s not about how it  _looks_. This is deeper than that, and if he’d only  _talk to her_ , then maybe she could help. But he didn’t seem to interested in that, and that made Tori feel so bitter she almost didn’t  _want_ to help him. Almost.

Without Luke, Tori was left with Dan. Which wasn’t a bad thing, granted, but things hadn’t been the same between the twins since they came to camp. And after she and Luke had met, they only seemed to grow farther apart.

About three weeks after Luke came back, Tori and Dan sat together in the strawberry field while Dan restrung his bow. Tori lay on her stomach, pulling at the bright green grass and letting it fall to the ground. After a while, she sighs and rolls onto her back. Dan raises an eyebrow curiously. “What’s wrong?”

Tori pouts, ripping up a bunch of purple flowers and throwing them to the sky. “I miss Luke.”

“Oh come on, it’s not that bad. You still have me.”

“It’s not the same! I could talk to Luke about things that I can't talk about with you.”

Dan set aside his bow. “Well, like what?”

Tori huffs. “Well, for instance, the annoying things that you do.”

“Tori!”

“See, I can't talk to you.”

“Tori, please, be serious.”

The thing was, Tori didn’t think she could. The things she talked about with Luke were private,  _solemn_ , even. She wasn’t sure how she felt talking to Dan about them. When she doesn’t respond, Dan makes an irritated noise and says, “Look, Tori, if you’re that upset about it, while don’t you talk to Luke?”

“I’ve tried that already, he won’t listen to me!”

“Well, then  _make_ him listen.”

Tori frowns. “How am I supposed to do that?” Dan just shrugs and returns to his bow.

Tori thought about what her brother had said.  _Make him listen._ She thinks she has an idea on how to do just that.

The next day, Tori leaves lunch early when she sees Luke head to the woods. She treks through the forest in the direction she’d seen him go, her bow ready in case she sees any monsters.

After twenty minutes of not finding him, she almost gives up and goes back to camp until she hears a rustling noise a few feet in front of her. Gripping her bow, she makes sure her sword is still at her side before venturing forth.

She finds Luke sitting on a log staring down at his hands. A few golden rays of sunlight had made their way past the trees to rest on his tanned skin and blond hair. After a moment, she realizes he’s looking at the golden apple that earned him the scar down his face.

He stands up when he hears her, gripping his own sword and dropping the apple. He relaxes his grip when he sees her, but rolls his eyes and turns away. “What do you want, Tori?”

She flinches a bit from his harsh tone, but decides to set it aside for now. “First of all, you shouldn’t just go in the woods without telling anyone where you’re going. I don’t care how angsty you feel, that’s dangerous.”

Luke was not amused. “Fine. Now what do you want?”

She tenses at his abrasive tone, and fights to keep her own words from turning acidic. “You’re not the  _only_  person whose life has been ruined by the gods, you know. So you can stop acting like it.” Well, she tried.

If her voice was acid, then his is venom. “What do you know about it?” he snaps, blue eyes bright with anger. “You’re not the one who has to live with  _this_!” he throws his hand up next to the side of his face with the scar. The anger in his eyes dims, tempered by pain.

Tori’s hurt feelings subside for the moment when she sees just how much this is affecting him. She’d decided to do this days ago when seeing the pain in his eyes became too much, but standing in front of him now her arms felt like lead. She drops her bow and quiver and turns around, pulling her purple shirt off.

Luke makes a surprised noise. “What are yo-” His voice catches in his throat when he sees her scars. They reached from the top of her arm to her shoulder and down most of her back. Luke stares at them in stunned silence. After a moment that feels like an eternity, she feels him start to gently trace the longest of them. “What happened to you?” His voice was quiet, almost a whisper.

It’s easier to talk when she doesn’t have to look at him him, and the words pour out of her like water from a dam. “Before I came to camp, a hellhound found me and my mom at our house. I got out. She didn’t.” Tears stream down her face. “She died _screaming_ for Apollo to save her, but he didn’t. He didn’t do  _anything_.” She was crying now, and her voice cracks.

Luke turns Tori around and wraps his arms around her, pulling her into his embrace. She clutches his shirt, sobbing into his chest. She feels something hard against her cheek, and realizes he has on her pendant under his shirt.

Luke rubs her back gently with one hand, his fingers pressing into her scars. “My mom,” Luke begins, his voice low, “when I was a baby, she tried to host the Oracle of Delphi. My dad told her about it. He knew it was a bad idea, but he let her do it anyway. And when she did, it...changed something in her. She went insane. I remember having to hide in a closet or under my bed when it got really bad. I ran away when I was nine because I couldn’t take it anymore. That’s when I met Thalia and Annabeth. We lived together for years before Grover found us and brought us to camp. Thalia died making sure we got through the barrier.”

Tori doesn’t know what to say, so she doesn’t say anything. She just holds him tighter, listening to the strong beat of his heart. Luke runs his fingers over one of her scars again. “Do they hurt?”

Tori shakes her head. “No. Does yours?”

After a beat passes, he explains, “It doesn’t hurt, exactly. It just...aches sometimes.” They stood in silence for a moment before Luke says, “I’m sorry about what I said earlier. That you didn’t know anything about...what I’m going through. And, about how I’ve been acting lately. You didn’t deserve that.”

“It’s okay,” she tells him, her voice muffled against his shirt. “Just don’t block me out like that again, alright?”

“I won’t.”

“Promise?”

Luke nods and kisses the top of her head. “Promise.”

They’re silent for a moment before Tori says, “I’ve never told anyone about this. Well, except for Dan. I didn’t really have a choice with him, though.”

Luke looks at her with his perfect blue eyes. They’re alight with anger and hatred and bitterness, but none of it is directed to her. “I’m glad you told me.”

Before she can respond, they heard the horn blow for their next activity.

“We should go.” Luke moves away from her and picks her shirt up from the ground. Tori blushes, glad that she’d thought to put on a bathing suit top before going to look for him. She pulls her shirt on before getting her bow and quiver. She picks up the golden apple, silently handing it to Luke. He takes it carefully, staring at it for a few seconds before turning and throwing it as far as he could.

They walk back in silence.

* * *

Red is a common color. It’s the color of flowers and hearts and birds. It’s a strong, _warm_  color. It’s the color of the blood that spurted from her mother’s body when she was killed. It’s the color of a hellhound’s eyes. It’s the color that covered Luke’s face when the dragon clawed him.

Tori doesn’t like red.

* * *

It’s not the first time Tori’s woken up in the infirmary, and she doubts it will be the last. Hooray for her.

Luke is the first thing she sees when she opens her eyes. He’s adjusting a warm towel someone put on her forehead, not really looking at her. Tori groans and tries to move, letting out a hiss of pain when she realizes what a bad idea that is. “ _Luke..._ ”

He’s at her side in an instant, grabbing her arm to help her sit up properly. “I’m here, I’m here.” He puts a glass of water to her lips, and Tori drinks from it gratefully, relishing the feeling of cold water on her swollen tongue and parched throat. Her entire body is sore, and her ears are buzzing. When she feels strong enough to speak, she asks Luke, “What happened?”

Luke’s expression switches from relieved to angry as he explains, “Clarisse tried to stab you with her spear — her  _electric_ spear, I might add — and you grabbed it. Tori, what the hell were you thinking?!”

Tori blinks at him. “Probably ‘how can I get this spear away from me?’”

It’s only when someone clears their throat that Tori realizes there are other people in the room. Chiron was at the end of her bed, along with Clarisse and over half a dozen other campers. "…What's going on?" Tori asks slowly.

"Chiron said I should apologize," Clarisse mumbles, glaring at her. "So I'm sorry." She pauses, then continues angrily, "But, honestly, I don't see why I have to do this.  _You're_ the one who was stupid enough to grab the spear!"

"Clarisse," Chiron scolds, moving in front of her when Luke takes an angry step in her direction. Tori stops him, holding onto his wrist.

"It's fine," Tori sighs, sagging a little as her energy starts to leave her. "She's right. It was stupid of me to grab the spear." There’s a pause as Tori looks around the room. "So why is everyone else here?" she demands, glaring at them. She’s starting to get uncomfortable, and really just wants to go back to sleep without a bunch of people watching her.

Someone from the crowd says, "Clarisse? Apologizing? Had to see it for myself." The group murmurs its assent.

"Well, she did so you can all leave now," Tori snaps, surprised Chiron hadn't already gotten rid of them.

"What was it like?" another camper from the crowd asks.

"What was _what_ like," Tori half-growls as Chiron says, "All right, there's nothing more to see. Why don't we let Tori rest—"

"Holding onto an electric spear," the camper explains. Chiron starts to scold the group, but Tori says, with a completely straight face, " _Shocking_."

The campers stare back at her, trying to decide on whether they should laugh or groan. Even Clarisse looks stunned at her comment.

"Oh my gods," someone murmurs with barely contained laughter in their voice, breaking the silence. Tori bows awkwardly and gives them a sarcastic smile. "I'll be here all week. For now, show's over. Please leave." Without waiting for an answer, she flops back down on her cot and turns over so she won't have to look at them, her body groaning in protest. She listens to the others leave until she and Luke are the only ones left. He’s sitting on the cot across from her, scowling at the floor. Tori sits up as best she can, resting on her side. “What’s wrong?”

Luke looks up at her with dark, angry eyes. “What’s wrong?” He stands up suddenly, and Tori finds herself moving back a bit as he storms over to her. “ _What’s wrong?_ Well  _gee_ , I don’t know Tori, maybe it’s the fact that  _I thought you were dying!_ ”

Tori stares at him with wide, confused eyes. “Luke—”

But he isn’t listening to her, didn’t even seem to hear her as he starts pacing angrily. “I didn’t know what was happening! One minute I was running through the woods, and the next I was on the ground! The colors...whenever I blinked, the world would go from color to grey, color to grey, and I didn’t know what the hell it meant!” Tears stream down his face as he stops and falls to his knees in front of her, sobbing. “Tori, don’t do that again, please. Don’t do that, don’t leave me.  _Please._ ”

Not sure what to do, Tori forces herself to sit up and pull Luke to her. His forehead falls against her stomach and he wraps his arms loosely around her back, clutching her desperately. She can feel his nails pressing into her scars, but she doesn’t care. She only holds him tighter, shifting her fingers through his soft hair. “It’s okay,” she says quietly, “I’m here. I’m not going to leave you. Luke, I’m right here.”

Luke calms down, but doesn’t look up. “Promise?”

Tori kisses his head. “Promise.”

* * *

Pink is...pretty. Tori likes soft pinks, like the color of the wildflowers that grow in the fields at camp, but not the bright fuchsias or magentas. Some pinks look more like purple to her, but that’s the nature of colors. Each one is completely different from every other one, no matter what group you put them into. Her favorite pink, however, is the color of Luke’s lips.

* * *

Tori’s lying down on a towel at the beach, shifting through the sand with her fingers. ‘Sand’ is listed in  _The Color Thesaurus_ , but Tori can’t help but feel that’s a mistake. Sand is not a single color; it’s a hundred different shades of yellow, brown, white, and grey.

She hears someone walking up behind her and turns to look at them. She smiles when she sees Luke, wearing a pair of green swim trunks. His skin glistens with drops of water from his swim in the ocean. It takes Tori a moment to realize she’s staring. It takes her longer to stop.

It had been her idea to come out here. The sky was grey today and covered in large clouds. It’s probably going to rain, and the beach isn’t protected from the weather like most of camp, hence why no one was out, or else Tori wouldn’t have come out in just her swimsuit. She thought it would be a good idea for her and Luke to get away from everyone else. He’s been tense ever since the spear accident, and whenever any Ares kids were around, he glares at them with such intensity that they usually scurry away without question. Tori thinks it’s sweet that he’s so protective, but it creeps Dan out a bit.

 _“You don’t understand,”_ he said when she asked him what his problem was,  _“You didn’t see him when you passed out. After he calmed down and his vision was okay...I thought he was going to seriously hurt Clarisse. He looked like he wanted to rip her head off. Chiron had to make him swear on the River Styx not to do anything to her before she went in the infirmary. And you could tell he didn’t like it, too.”_

Tori admits that the right reaction to that probably wasn’t the swell of love and giddiness she’d felt, but she likes how much Luke cares. And she doesn’t believe that he would have hurt Clarisse, not really. The girl’s barely a teenager; Luke would never hurt someone so young.

Tori snaps back to the present when Luke walks over to her and looks up, frowning at the sky. “Looks like it’s gonna rain.”

Tori shrugs. “That’s okay. I like the rain.”

“Yeah?” He asks, sitting down.

Tori nods. “My mom liked to take me and Dan to the roof and dance when it rained.” Tori used to think her childish delight was silly. Now she misses it.

Luke smiles and sits next to her, leaning back on his hands. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Tori laughs. “She was a  _terrible_ dancer! It always took me a minute to get into it. I was afraid someone would see us. But once I did...it was like there was nothing else in the world I’d rather be doing.” There’s a wistful note to her voice that she wants to shrug off, but can’t.

Luke smiles softly at her before standing up and reaching out his hand. “Come on.”

Tori frowns, but takes his hand. “What?”

Luke grins. “Let’s dance.”

Tori’s eyebrows raise. “Right now?”

“What better time?” He pulls her up and into his arms. Their hands lace together as they start to dance. They sway slowly for a moment before Luke pushes her out, spins her, and pulls her back to him. Tori laughs as rain begins to fall around them. The world turns grey, but Tori doesn’t care as long as she has Luke’s eyes.

They dance together for what feels like eternity, spinning, swaying, and and dipping. After a while, they just stand together, hearts pounding, chests heaving as they stare at each other. Tori reaches up and brushes the skin under Luke’s half-lidded eyes with her thumbs.

“Tori?” Luke says quietly.

Tori, whose breaths are long and shallow, looks up at him. “Yeah?”

“I don’t think I want to be just friends anymore.”

Tori stares at him for several long moments before saying, “Oh, thank _gods_.” Without waiting, she throws her arms around his neck and kisses him roughly. Luke smiles against her mouth and kisses her back, wrapping his arms around her in a vice-like grip.

It isn’t a ‘middle of the afternoon’ kiss. It’s not an ‘oh hey, it’s our first, so why don’t we try and figure out how we fit’ kiss. And it’s definitely not a ‘hmm, not really sure but what the heck’ kiss. It’s an ‘I could swallow you whole’ kiss. An ‘I have to get as much of you as possible’ kiss. A ‘you are _mine-mine-mine_ and no one else’s’ kiss.

Tori reaches up to run her fingers through Luke’s soaked hair as he wraps an arm around her waist, pulling her closer. The sound of the rain dims around her until the only things she’s aware of are Luke's arms around her and his hand in her hair and his mouth against hers. His lips are rough and warm and Tori doesn’t think there’s anywhere else in the world she’d rather be.

* * *

Green is the color of a forest. It’s grass and poison and plants. It’s cool, and fresh, like walking on damp grass with bare feet. She wants to say it’s the color of the ocean, but the ocean is so many colors...

* * *

Tori fumes silently, using her sword to take her anger out on Luke. He blocks her every time, but it’s taking him more effort than usual, and he doesn’t even try to get in any swipes or thrusts of his own. Finally, he pulls back, holding his hands up. “Stop!”

Tori lurches back suddenly and stares at him. “What?”

Luke’s breathing hard, his shirt clinging to him with sweat. “Let’s take a break.”

Tori huffs and throws down her sword. “Fine.” She turns around and walks over to their stuff, picking up her water bottle and taking several large gulps.

Luke watches her, unsure if he should say anything. Not knowing what else to do, he asks, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Tori frowns and sets the bottle down. “Talk about what?”

“You know. What happened with your brother and…” he trails off.

Tori scoffs. “Apollo? I don’t care what he does. Why should I? I don’t need him. I don’t need  _either_ of them.”

“Okay.”

“I mean, it’s not like he owes me anything. You know, my mom just died  _begging_  him to help her, but why should I care? Just because he claimed Dan and not me, why should I give a fuck?”

“Alright.”

Tori starts to pace the length of the room, growing more and more agitated as she speaks. “I don’t need him, I don’t need his acknowledgement, and I sure as  _hell_  don’t  _want it_.”

“Got it.”

“Damnit, what the fuck is wrong with me?!” Tori screams suddenly, kicking a wall.

Luke sighs and walks up behind her, wrapping his arms lightly around her stomach and kissing her neck. “There’s nothing wrong with you.”

Tori and leans back against Luke’s chest, letting her hands rest on his. When Luke looks at her, he realizes there are tears in her eyes. “Then why do I feel like this?”

“Because you’re human, and that’s what humans do. We feel, regardless of whether or not what we feel makes any sense.” Luke kisses the base of her neck softly, like he’s afraid he might break her if he’s too rough. “Come on, let’s sit down. You shouldn’t train like this, you’ll hurt yourself.”

Tori nods sullenly and they go to sit against the wall. After a few minutes, Tori realizes that Luke’s staring at her. “What?” Tori asks.

Luke squints and turns his head slightly like he’s trying to figure something out. “I can’t decide what color your hair is.”

Tori frowns, touching her hair self-consciously. “It’s blonde.”

“Well yeah, but it’s not just one color. It’s like a thousand different shades all combined to make one impossible to describe color. I don’t think I’ll ever decide just what it is.”

Tori turns to hide her blush, though she’s sure Luke can tell. She frowns suddenly as she thinks of something. Luke asks what’s wrong, and she explains, “I don’t know your favorite color.”

Luke’s eyebrows scrunch together, like ‘that can’t be right’. “Really?”

“Yeah. It’s weird. I mean, we’ve been dating for over six months now, we’ve been soulmates for three years, you’d think it would come up.”

“Okay, then. Ask me.”

Tori raises an eyebrow, but smiles and asks, “What’s your favorite color?”

Luke thinks about it for a moment before saying, “Brown.”

Tori frowns. “Brown?”

“Brown.”

Tori stares at him like he just suggested the sky was purple and made of hedgehogs. “Why?”

“It’s the color of your eyes.”

Tori blushes again, the color staining her cheeks slightly red. “Luke, brown is the most common eye color. It’s nothing special.”

Luke looks at her with an ‘oh,  _really_?’ expression. He takes her arm and pushes her down carefully so that she’s laying on the floor with him hovering over her. “Care to elaborate?”

Tori’s sure her entire face and neck are red now, but she keeps her voice even as she says, “Your eyes are special. They’re blue, like the sky or the ocean. Mine are just...ordinary.”

“Ordinary?” Luke shifts his weight to just one hand and uses the other to gently caress Tori’s cheek, brushing the space next to her eyes with his thumb. “Tori, your eyes are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Your eyes are made of amber and onyx. Your eyes are anything but ordinary.” He kisses her, setting his hand back down and letting himself fall slightly so that they’re pressed completely against each other. Tori returns the kiss, running her hands through his hair eagerly and opening her mouth to his tongue.  _I could drown in him like this_ , she thinks.  _I don’t think I’d even care._ She pulls away from him to look into his eyes, and knows he feels the same way.

* * *

Brown is a bronze sword and shield, keeping you safe from your enemies. It’s the gold people desperately try to pull from the ground. It’s the sheen of her skin and the color of her eyes and she’s never really cared much about it before now.

* * *

Tori leans into Luke’s side, looking up at the sky. “It’s beautiful tonight.”

“It is,” Luke says. It takes her a moment to realize he’s not talking about the stars.

Tori lays back against their blanket. They’re on the flat roof of the Hermes Cabin, pointing out the constellations to each other. Or rather, Luke’s pointing them out to her while she pretends to see them. It was her idea to come up here after Luke woke up from a particularly bad nightmare (though she’s still not sure where he found the ladder).

Luke snaps and points out another constellation. “That’s Andromeda.”

“Oh! I remember her! She was chained to a rock to be killed after someone bragged about something. Probably.”

Luke laughs. “Basically, yeah. And there’s the Scorpion, right beghind Orion.”

“Right, right, because Apollo put the scorpion in the sky to chase Orion after he died because he didn’t like that Orion was into Artemis.” Tori frowns. “Are  _any of these_ stories happy?”

“I’ll get back to you on that.”

Tori rests her head on top of his arm, smiling gently. “My mom used to love looking at the stars. She’d make up songs about the constellations and we’d sing them together.”

Luke turns to look at her. “I didn’t know you sing.”

“Oh yeah, I used to love to sing, but I never do anymore.”

“Why not?”

Tori shrugs. “It’s not the same. I don’t have anyone to sing for.”

Luke rolls onto his stomach and looks at her with his glittering eyes. “Can you sing for me?”

Tori looks at him and bites her lip, the familiar feeling of butterflies in her stomach. “I don’t know. I haven’t sung in forever. What would I even sing?”

Luke shrugs. “Whatever you want.”

Tori thinks about it for a minute or so, playing with Luke’s hands. Quietly, so quietly at first that Luke can barely hear her, she sings, “ _I keep a close watch on this heart of mine. I keep my eyes wide open all the time. I keep the ends out for the tie that binds. Because you’re mine, I walk the line. I find it very very easy to be true. I find myself alone when each day is through. Yes, I’ll admit that I’m a fool for you. Because you’re mine, I walk the line. Because you’re mine, I walk the line._ ” Tori hums during the pause between lyrics, closing her eyes as she loses herself in the song, _“You’ve got a way, to, keep me on your side. You give me cause, for, love that I can’t hide. For you I’d know I’d even try to turn the tide. Because you’re mine, I walk—”_

Tori doesn’t get to finish the song because suddenly Luke is on her, his hands on either side of her head as he kisses her roughly,  _passionately_. Tori laughs when they stop for breath. “Was my singing that bad?”

Luke shakes his head, leaving gentle kisses down her throat. “No. It was that _good_.” Tori’s laugh turns to a surprised squeak when Luke continues from her neck her collarbone, pulling her shirt down slightly to get to it. He stops when he hears her and looks up at Tori nervously. “Is this okay?”

Tori nods wildly, trying to stay cool. “Yeah.” She takes a moment to calm down before she sits up straight. They face each other, both wondering if they should make the next move. In the end it’s Tori that leans forward to take Luke’s head in her hands and kiss him, first on his forehead, then his nose, and finally his mouth.

The kiss is chaste at first, barely anything more than pressing their lips together. But it doesn’t take long to escalate, and soon Tori is mapping out Luke’s mouth with her tongue, leaning into him as much as she can without falling forward completely. Her hands are splayed against his chest for balance, and as soon as she stops for air, Luke grabs her by the waist and pulls her into his lap, quickly leaning forward to nip at her neck.

Tori squeaks slightly when she feels his erection against her. Luke pulls back, frowning, a nervous look in his eyes. “Do you want to stop?”

Tori takes a moment to look at him. His pupils are dilated and she can feel his heart beating faster under her palm — but his expression is one of concern, and that’s what convinces her. “No, I want to keep going. You?”

“Yeah,” Luke says, nodding slowly, “Yeah, I want to keep going.”

Tori smiles and kisses him again, gripping the neck of his shirt with her hands and wrapping her legs around him while Luke holds her to him by her waist, digging his nails into her back. As their kisses grow more heated, Tori’s hands drift down to the hem of Luke’s shirt. She breaks the kiss, looking down at Luke’s shirt then up at him. Luke clears his throat and nods. Tori’s face breaks into a grin as she pulls the shirt up and off him, throwing it to the side. Her hands are on him in an instant, rubbing up and down his chest and abdomen while her hips roll.

Before she realizes what’s happening, Tori’s on her back. Luke is a step away, pulling off his pants. Tori laughs and joins him, taking off her tank top and shorts. Soon all either of them have on is Tori’s bracelet and Luke’s pendant. The arrow point dangles over Tori’s heart as Luke leans over her, his blue eyes focused entirely on her. She shivers from the intensity of his gaze. It’s the same look he has when he fights; like there’s nothing in the universe more important than what’s happening right now.

For a few minutes, they do nothing more than explore each other’s bodies, mapping out the other’s flesh with gentle lips and hands. It’s not enough, and they know it’s not enough, but they hesitate, staring into each other’s eyes and wondering if this is a bad idea, if they should wait, if this will change their relationship too much. Then she kisses him, because this feels  _right_ in a way she doesn’t completely understand and she never wants to give it up.

Tori uses her hand to guide Luke inside her, sucking in a breath when she feels him. They’re still for a moment as they adjust to the new feelings. Then Luke whines and rocks his hips, _carefully_ , like she’s made of glass. She chuckles and wraps her legs around his hips, encouraging him to move. He does, slowly at first, but quickly gaining speed.

Tori groans and lets her head fall back, drawing her nails down Luke’s back. She wonders if there’s something more to Plato’s theory about soulmates, if she and Luke really are one half of each other. Maybe that’s why this is the first time she can remember feeling whole.

Tori gasps suddenly when Luke moves his hips a certain way, digging her nails into his back. “ _Fuck_ , Luke,  _do that again._ ” Luke smirks at her, but Tori doesn’t notice; she’s too busy keeping herself from shouting out. She knows she can’t, she knows that they’ll get in trouble if anyone hears them, but  _fuck_ if she doesn’t want to scream from the way Luke is moving. She hitches her legs higher around his waist, nearly to his ribs, and soon the only words passing through her head are  _yes, more, please, fuck, fuck, yes, like that, again, please, please, PLEASE_ —

Tori bites into Luke’s shoulder to stifle her shout as she comes with a shudder. Luke follows soon after, only barely preventing himself from collapsing on top of Tori. For a couple of minutes, they just stay in each other’s arms, Luke tracing Tori’s scars while she plays with his hair. But eventually they get and up and get dressed, stealing shy glances at each other before turning away.

Tori bundles up the blanket and goes back to the Hermes Cabin while Luke puts the ladder back to wherever he found it. She’s waiting for him when he gets back, sitting patiently on his bed in a fresh set of clothes. He smiles when he sees her and speeds up, nearly tripping over a couple of people on the floor in his effort to get there faster. Tori stifles a laugh, then another at the glare he shoots her. She puts her arms around his waist once he’s there, pulling him down to the bed and covering them both with blankets. Tori yawns and mumbles,  _love you_ , without thinking about it. She’s asleep before she notices, but Luke smiles and kisses the top of her head, whispering it back before he drifts off.

* * *

Blue is the sky on a clear day. It’s the water of the lake at camp. It’s the color of Luke’s eyes, and it’s  _home_.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: In case there’s any confusion, Luke’s vision switched from grey to color because Tori was knocked unconscious. The same thing didn’t happen to her when Luke was injured by the dragon because he was still awake and fighting.
> 
> Also, checkout my Luke/Tori playlist on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxoutNxT-3M&list=PLtdXuvShwBwMV125TXHQTuT6CPBtVZmbt
> 
> Find me @tori-castellan on tumblr.


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